The Office Playground Blog

Creating Focused Meetings Using Toys

No matter how important a meeting is, it still can be a challenge to get attendees to arrive on time and keep them focused and engaged. More and more executives, managers, facilitators and educators are discovering the solution is toys.

A fidget toy can stimulate creativity. Age doesn't matter, when we have a toy in our hands, we enter a playful frame of mind that opens up creative thought which aids the flow of new ideas and problem solving. Something to squeeze can diffuse anxiety and a relaxed person often feels more confident to participate. Toys also provide a much-needed break during long meetings requiring sustained concentration. The fun factor's effect on attendee attitude is important too. Everyone wants to attend a meeting that provides a toy to play with!

What toys are best for meetings?
Office Playground's Meeting in a Box is the perfect solution. It provides toys that offer tactile stimulation and they won't break, leak or make distracting noises. Meeting in a Box comes in a briefcase shaped box that includes a variety of foam stress toys, fidget toys, and stress balls (a total of 17 stress toys) and an informational handout "Best Practices for Using Toys to Drive Meeting Success."

Extreme Workplaces

Eating lunch outside at the Googleplex

The Travel Channel's segment on Extreme Workplaces is mind boggling and dream inspiring. Showcased in the show and the article, "Thinking Outside the Cubicle" written by Erica Walsh, are seven businesses that go all out in providing uniquely designed workplaces and unbelievably fun perks for their employees.

Ping Pong at the Threadless Warehouse

While not all employers can provide such wonderland-type settings and expensive perks, fun doesn't have to be high priced. Small gifts given out at a meeting can make a big impression. Freebees are appreciated and the good will associated with them can help stimulate creativity that just might give birth to the next great idea for your business.

Office Playground's Meeting in a Box is a modestly priced box containing 17 fidget toys. These little toys add an element of fun to any meeting or workday. The briefcase shaped box makes it easy to carry and it will definitely be the center of attention when placed on the conference table and opened to reveal the variety of toys inside. Let the brainstorming begin!

Images of the Googleplex courtesy of Erik Hersman. Image of the Threadless Warehouse courtesy of Joe M500.

May is National Physical Fitness and Sports Month

Since 1983, May has been observed as National Physical Fitness and Sports Month. Individuals and organizations everywhere have joined in the fun to promote awareness of the value of physical activity in the pursuit of happier, healthier, more productive lives.

Many people spend most of their work week sitting at a desk. "We are made to move, not sit at a desk 12 hours a day," says Joan Price, author of The Anytime, Anywhere Exercise Book. "As ergonomic as your desk or chair may be, sitting produces back pains, headaches, and listlessness. You become less productive." The Surgeon General recommends at least 30 minutes of physical activity a day, but with today's hectic schedules, even 30 minutes of exercise can be difficult to squeeze into a busy day. Micro workouts are a step in the right direction. Get in a few minutes of exercise right at your desk. Three minutes of exercise ten times in a day at work and you've done your required thirty minutes of exercise. There are exercises you can do at your desk. Stretching is good for your neck and back and it can be done while sitting. (Read more about stretching at your desk.)

Zig Ziglar is an author and famous motivational speaker focused on inspiring true performance in the corporate world. He said "for every five minutes of exercise you do, you'll get back fifteen minutes of productivity". L.L. Bean recently tested this theory. They provided their workers with three five minute exercise breaks. At the end of the day when they measured productivity, they found that they had gained thirty minutes in output.

The key to exercise and physical activity is fun and convenience. At work, do fun activities during breaks such as play office golf, magnetic darts or a quick game of air hockey. At lunch time, take a walk or play catch with a Nerf ball in the parking lot. Walk up and down stairs rather than using the elevator. If you ride a bus, get off a few blocks early and walk the remaining distance. At home, take advantage of summer's long hours of daylight and warm evenings by enjoying sunset walks or bicycle rides. Working in the garden or playing games with the children can be a great way to end a day.

Office Playground offers scores of choices to help you score on the exercise scale. Add fun physical activity to your day with Indoor Sports Games, Sports Balls, Basketball Hoop games, Magnetic Dart Games, Disc Shooters and Safe Shooters. At your desk use Therapy Balls for hand and arm exercises.

Images courtesy of About.com © Anne Asher 2006-2007 licensed to About.com

The How and Why of Newton's Cradles

The Newtonian Demonstrator, known today as the Newton's Cradle, is a device that demonstrates the laws of conservation of momentum and energy. The concept was demonstrated centuries ago in France and used by Sir Isaac Newton when he developed the laws of physics.

How the Newton's Cradle works
When the first ball strikes the row of balls, the impact produces a shock wave that travels through the metal balls at the speed of sound. The speed of sound through steel is much faster (4699 m/s) than through air (300 m/s). The time for the shock wave to travel the short distance through the balls is too small for human perception. Neither the momentum nor energy is perfect in efficiency. Energy is lost in the suspending wires, friction of the surrounding air, and sound (the clicking of balls). The momentum degrades with each swing until near the end of oscillation the intermediate balls are swaying.

We have had customers ask why the balls don't clack back and forth forever in perpetual motion. It's because of the energy loss with each impact. Since energy cannot be created or destroyed, there can never be a "net gain" of energy and therefore there cannot ever be a true "perpetual motion" device (note to self, make a perpetual motion device, sell it to the highest bidder, retire).

The largest Newton's Cradle is over 20 feet tall. It was designed by Chris Boden and is located at The Geek Group home base in Kalamazoo, Michigan. The monster Newtonian demonstrator is made up of 7 bowling balls weighting 15 pounds each. The bowling balls are attached to metal cables and hung from trusses in the ceiling of a warehouse. The suspension cables are 20 feet long and the bowling balls hang 3 feet from the floor.

Why a Newton's Cradle?
Because they're fascinating to watch, make a cool sound, and provide kinetic entertainment without batteries! As it turns out, this little device has become among the most classic Desk Toys of all time. We sell tons of these (literally) and take them very seriously. If you want your own steel balls transferring energy at 4699 m/s, click here to see our selection.